Started by current and former students in CSU's Acting Union, the online petition to save the courses began in December and has so far attracted more than 1000 signatures.

Organisers say they are hoping to see a groundswell of support for the courses in order to change the university's decision to restructure the program.

"With the number of signatures we have, it's definitely enough to get [the university] to re-think the decision," said 21-year-old Ava Castellaro, who is petition coordinator and current third-year creative industries student.

"It shows the course means something not just to the students, but to Wagga, the region and the world."

From this year, the university has announced, it will no longer offer separate specialties. Instead, the university will offer a single communications and creative industries course with options for the major.

It is one of several courses facing changes under the university's 'sustainable futures' program, which aims to address its $80 million loss in revenue and predicted $49.5 million deficit by mid-2021.

David Joshua Ford credits his time at Charles Sturt University as giving him the skills he's needed to start up his own production house in New York.

The filmmaker completed a Bachelor of Arts in TV production between 2003 and 2005 at the Wagga campus, before continuing further post-graduate study later at the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS).

"I chose to study at CSU because at the time it had the best TV production course in Australia," Mr Ford told The Daily Advertiser.

"The TV production course I did [at CSU] was so foundational, I think the people I hire now don't have those skills that I graduated with."

Before moving overseas nearly a decade ago to begin his own company, Mr Ford work on and off-camera at some of Australia's major television networks.

Throughout his entire career, he said, it has been the connections he made in Wagga that have continued his professional growth.

"The teachers were great, I'm still in contact with some of them. Some have been mentors for 15 years," he said.

"AFTRS was amazing, I loved it but CSU, it felt like the lecturers were more invested in our futures, they were more supportive."

Believing the changes to the course proposed by the university would represent a "great loss to Australia and the regions in particular", Mr Ford has added his name to the thousand others by signing the online petition.

He is joined by fellow alumni John Matkovic who relocated from Sydney to complete the three-year Bachelor of Arts in theatre, TV and production in 1990.

Mr Matkovic said his degree helped him land a job working with internationally-acclaimed stars including Marilyn Manson and Joe Cocker at Sydney's Enmore Theatre.

"They threw us into everything, radio, TV editing, it was a full-on degree," Mr Matkovic said.

"It still has to be one of the few courses in the regions that cater for all of that," he said.

As one of the first cohorts to go through the Wagga campus, Mr Matkovic recalls he graduated with only about six other students.

"There's so much interest in the arts now [...] Wagga is the perfect place to learn all of that, especially in theatre. There are two venues there that are perfect to learn in," he said.

Aside from the city's wider resources, Mr Matkovic said he expects a lot of the on-campus facilities would go to waste if the creative courses evaporated from Wagga.

"The Wagga campus has world-class TV and sound studios, I couldn't imagine that being closed down.

"For me, I think they [the university] should be looking to expand it now. It could be the biggest creative industry on this side of the Blue Mountains.

"Big names went through that course. Why does it always have to be the big cities that attract those students? They could easily be in Wagga."

With the online petition continuing to grow, one of the organisers and alumni of the course, 25-year-old Jhi Raynor, is hopeful the university will reverse its decision on the creative industries by the time the first session begins.

"Ideally, the university can find a way to keep [the separate specialised courses], there has to be some way forward that doesn't involve having an amalgamated course that just ticks a box," Mr Raynor said.